A Kentucky Senator has tried to limit when governors can issue pardons or commute sentences in a gubernatorial election year during five of the last six legislative sessions. This year’s attempt gained committee approval on Wednesday.
Kenton County Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel has been proposing a constitutional amendment to prohibit the governor from pardoning people or commuting sentences in the days leading up to and following gubernatorial elections since 2020, beginning in the wake of controversial pardons issued by Matt Bevin in his final days in office.
After narrowly losing his reelection campaign to current Gov. Andy Beshear in 2019, Bevin issued more than 600 pardons and commutations between his election loss and his last day in office. The Louisville Courier-Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of some of Bevin’s more controversial actions in this timespan – including pardoning a convicted child rapist and pardoning one man convicted of homicide after his family raised over $20,000 for Bevin at a political fundraiser.
McDaniel said the bill is meant to prevent outgoing leaders from pardoning people at their sole discretion for “whatever crimes they want.”
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“It forces the executive, or the party of the executive, to stand in front of the voters and account for the actions that they take,” McDaniel said. “The power to pardon still exists for three years and nine months out of every gubernatorial term. This is simply a common sense measure to put in front of the voters of the Commonwealth.”
Last year, the measure passed the Senate, but died in a House committee.
While previous versions of the bill put a moratorium on pardons and commutations 30 days before the general election, a committee substitute bill approved Wednesday would extend that period to 60 days before an election. McDaniel said this change was made because of the rise in early voting participation in recent years, and said that prohibiting pardons and commutations in the two months before an election should give voters enough time to be informed about actions taken by the executive.
If the bill passes both the state House and Senate with at least 60% of the votes in both chambers, Kentuckians would get to vote on the proposed amendment in 2026.
This story is republished with permission from WKMS. Read the original.
Hannah Saad is the assistant news director for WKMS. Originally from Michigan, Hannah earned her bachelor’s degree in news media from The University of Alabama. Prior to joining WKMS in March 2023, Hannah was a news reporter at The Paducah Sun.
